Traps for catching fish and crabs are well known as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,575, owned by the present inventor. Such traps commonly include one-way entrance gates that allow marine animals to enter the trap but not to exit. Such entrance gates are called “triggers” in the industry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,283 of Wyman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,756 of Wyman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,405 of Hendricks, U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,653 of Wyman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,273 of Ives, U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,627 of Mattson et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,575 of Hilty describe some known triggers for use with fish and crab traps. The trigger described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,283 of Wyman includes comb-like structures formed of resilient, plastic tines rigidly mounted at one end to the entrance frame of a trap. U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,756 of Wyman et al. describes a trigger having a rectangular frame supporting resilient plastic tines around the entire frame. The tines extend inwardly from the rectangular frame toward the chamber of the trap so that they converge at their free ends.
The present inventor has realized that many triggers are complex, commonly include multiple moving parts and/or multiple parts that need to be assembled, are expensive to manufacture, and require multiple assembly steps, either during manufacture or during installation into a trap. Fishing regulations in various parts of the world mandate triggers with excluder bars, which are bars that extend across the opening of a trap at specified intervals to prevent larger marine animals from entering the trap. For example, in Alaskan waters, excluder bars on cod traps are required by regulation to prevent halibut from entering the traps. The present inventor has also realized that known triggers commonly require a separate piece, or several separate pieces, to be assembled and used as excluder bars, and that such excluder bars may be left off of triggers or improperly installed.